The following month, former tsar Nikolai, his empress Alexandra and their five children were shot dead by the Communists along with their servants in Yekaterinburg, also in the Urals.

Detailed study of archives by a Russian-American team has concluded the remains of Mikhail and his servant are buried in Vyshki-2 district near Perm.

Three different plots are being excavated, say reports in Russia.

“The searchers believe ‘with a high degree of probability’ that they found the bleak spot where the pair were executed, and the next task is to locate the burial site,” reported The Siberian Times today.

A Perm official said: “A test trench will be laid to determine the level of the earth in 1918.

“During the excavations, various scientific methods will be used to identify anomalies that may indicate the location of human remains.”

If remains are found they will be handed to the Russian Investigative Committee which is probing the deaths of the royal family.

In 2009, Mikhail and his servant were officially rehabilitated, having been earlier branded “enemies of the people”.

“The analysis of old archive materials leads to the conclusion that these persons were subject to persecution in the form of arrest, exile and surveillance by the Cheka without being charged with any specific crime, on account of their class and social status,” said officials at the time.

Johnson, known as Johnny at the Russian court, was “round faced, not very tall, and speaking three languages”.

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He has been often referred to as having British ancestry and had lived in England.

But his roots remain unclear and he certainly was also partly Russian.

He had been Mikhail’s private secretary since 1912 but the pair had been friends much longer.

A disputed account says his father was a Briton who married Johnson’s mother, a music teacher at the Russian Imperial Court.

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